He bent over to kiss her, but remembered where they were and picked up the empty water bottle next to her instead.

What the hell?

They’d both agreed that they didn’t want this thing between them to become fodder for the office rumor mill. Samiah had experienced enough of that after the Craig incident. For Daniel, it was more about mitigating the hurt and embarrassment she would undoubtedly face if he had to disappear from Trendsetters without a trace.

He grimaced at the sour taste that thought left in his mouth.

Daniel went downstairs, but encountering yet another downpour, opted for a corner of the lobby to make his call. He switched to his secured cell phone and called into FinCEN headquarters and asked to be patched to Preston August’s desk.

“Hey Preston, what’s up?” Daniel said when he heard the click on the other end of the line.

“It’s not Preston.” His spine went rigid at the sound of Lowell Dwyer’s gruff voice.

“Sir?” Daniel replied.

“Do you have five minutes to talk, Collins?”

“Yes, sir,” was his immediate answer.

“I have a proposal for you,” his supervisor began, and Daniel’s heart started to thump like a bass drum within his chest. “All intel shows that the outfit in Vegas is preparing to go dark and move their base of operation to Seattle. I want us to move in before they have the chance to do that, and I want you to run lead.”

A tidal wave of euphoria surged within his chest and spread to his extremities. This was it. The gold prize.

“You know what I think about you as an agent, Collins,” Dwyer continued in what passed for gentle when it came to his brusque tone. “This is the kind of opportunity that can catapult your career. Much more so than what you’re doing down there in Austin.”

The exhilaration still shuttling through his bloodstream began to wane as the full implication of his boss’s offer began to crystalize. If he answered in the affirmative, Dwyer would have him sitting at a gate at Austin-Bergstrom Airport tonight. There was probably a team of people working on the formal explanation email that would be sent to Trendsetters’ HR director.

The dread tingling at the base of his neck spidered out to the rest of his body.

He couldn’t do it. He couldn’t leave. Not this soon. He needed more time.

Seriously, man, what the fuck?